Cardiff’s Independent Living Services provide support to help older people stay independent at home. 70% of clients were supported to stay at home without the need for Social Services involvement.
The Independent Living service is largely funded by Welsh Government grant and the continuation of this service could be threatened if future funding is not secured.
We have invested in providing home adaptations. The Disabled Facilities Service is working well, installing adaptations in a timely and cost effective way which compares well with the rest of Wales. Demand for disabled adaptations is likely to increase, putting pressure on existing resources.
When asked, older people were often unaware of the different housing options available and concerned about the financial, legal and practical issues associated with moving. We need to improve the specialist housing advice available to older people.
There are advantages to older people in downsizing to more appropriate accommodation and this can play an important part in helping them to stay independent at home.
There are large numbers of older people living in social housing properties with more rooms than they need. Giving them attractive housing options could encourage them to downsize to more suitable housing while also freeing up much needed family accommodation.
We have had some success in assisting older social tenants to downsize however, there is limited support available for home owners and those in the private rented sector to help them to downsize.
The provision of on-site support in Sheltered Housing Schemes will be important in meeting the needs of older people. Changes to funding have already resulted in some reduction of the support available and if this continues it will affect the ability of sheltered housing to meet the needs of older people.
There is an opportunity to provide different models of support such as “Sheltered Plus” or “Extra Care Light” as options to meet the range of needs of the older population.
Our current social housing allocation process does not take into account the housing choices of older applicants and wellbeing issues such as social isolation. We need to review the waiting list and allocation arrangements to fully reflect the housing choices and the wider needs of older people.
Residential care placements have decreased noticeably over the last five years due to services now being available in the community to support frail people at home. Nursing home placements are higher than expected and if this trend continues an extra 655 nursing home beds will be needed in Cardiff by 2035.
While telecare services are helping many people to stay independent, there is an opportunity to make greater use of new technology to support people to stay in their own homes.
Connection to the community is important to the wellbeing of older people.
Cardiff has a range of services to help prevent social isolation and improve wellbeing; many of these are based around our Community Hubs.
We are developing a number of new initiatives to add to this, including new community wellbeing hubs in the north and west of the city and proposals to open the facilities in older persons housing complexes to the wider community.